Hate Shopping Cart Dings? Avoid Mattatuck Plaza in Waterbury

Shopping carts. The menace of parking lots. They cause so many dings and scratches on our vehicles. One of the best (Or worst) places to watch this type of destruction is the Mattatuck Plaza Shopping Center on Wolcott Street in Waterbury. Whoever designed this plaza definitely didn't take gravity into account when they planned it out.

With the Long Hill in the background, the plaza is graded to slope towards Wolcott Street. So, if someone releases a shopping cart in front of Shop Rite, chances are, it will roll due East towards Denny's and Game Stop. Most likely, it will never make it, because there are usually dozens of parked cars to absorb the hit.

I used to work at Record Town in the glorious 80s. It was located where Casual Male used to be, and Denny's is currently. We used to stand behind the cash registers, and watch the steady procession of shopping carts fly across the parking lot into empty vehicles. A few times, we saw teenagers intentionally ram the runaway carts with their junkers, leaving nice dings in their rusted bumpers.

My sage advice? Park near the shopping cart returns. Although many people are lazy, if you're within a couple of cars of the returns, most will properly return the empty menaces.

P.S. I really miss Roy Rogers and the Ground Round.

Bonus video: Watch Hardcore Sweet in Oakville create the Large Dave/i95 Cupcake